In a single quarter, capped by a shot no one will ever forget, the Baldwinsville girls basketball team may have altered the entire Section III Class AA landscape for the rest of the season.
Down by double digits in Tuesday night’s game at Cicero-North Syracuse, the Bees made a furious charge that resulted in a last-second 3-point shot that Sydney Huhtala converted to stun the Northstars 64-63.
Very little that led up to this game suggested that this would happen. B’ville still had not fully recovered from the December injury that sidelined Katie Pascale, while C-NS had won six in a row to again establish itself as a championship favorite.
What was more, the Northstars had whipped the Bees 76-50 in early December at Baker High School before Pascale got hurt, so a different result in the rematch was not expected.
Indeed, during the first half B’ville gradually saw the Northstars build a 39-24 advantage, and while the Bees played better in the third quarter, it still trailed, 50-36, with one period left.
But the Bees’ full-court pressure took a toll during those last eight minutes, causing a rash of C-NS turnovers and baskets on the other end that wiped out the Northstars’ advantage.
And it was Hannah Mimas leading that comeback, working her total to 20 points as Huhtala had 11 points, Jordan Roy got 10 points and Courtney Clute added nine points.
For all that, B’ville still found itself trailing 62-61 when C-NS’s Julia Schaefer went to the line for two free throws with 7.1 seconds left.
Schaefer only made one of the free throws, so the Bees could tie or win it. Mimas brought the ball up the court, and with C-NS focusing its defense on stopping her drive, she passed to Huhtala, situated just outside the 3-point line.
With only two seconds left, Huhtala fired – and hit, triggering a celebration among the B’ville players of its most important win of the season.
For C-NS, Jessica Cook led with 20 points, but the Bees kept everyone else fairly contained, though Mackenzie White had 12 points, Julia Rowe nine points and Morgan Siechen eight points.
Now the trick for B’ville was to turn the momentum from this massive win into another special effort Friday at two-time defending sectional champion West Genesee, who had handled the Bees 71-39 four weeks earlier.
But the Wildcats were quite ready, having seen what B’ville did at C-NS, and proceeded to handle the Bees again, this time by a 76-43 margin, the highlight a second-quarter barrage.
WG outscored B’ville 33-8 in that second period, eventually hitting 10 3-pointers, five of them by Mackenzie Smith on her way to 23 points as Julia Logana (12 points) and Madison Smith (11 points) helped.
On B’ville’s side, only Mimas, with 12 points, hit double figures, Alex Bednarczyk adding eight points as Mary Young got seven points. Clute and Mattison Phinney had six points apiece.
A busy closing week of the regular season awaited the Bees (9-8), starting with a home date with Fayetteville-Manlius Tuesday, continuing Friday at Corcoran and concluding Saturday night with a visit from Nottingham.
